September 29 I Sunday
Isaiah 7-8
Ephesians 2
“When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, ‘Don’t cry.’” —Luke 7:13
About two years into Jesus’s public ministry, a large crowd starts to follow Him because He is doing all kinds of miraculous signs and wonders throughout Galilee. Healing the sick, casting out demons and speaking in very certain terms to reveal that He is the promised Messiah with the authority to forgive our sins. The crowd following Jesus is excited, rejoicing and anticipating but there is another crowd weeping and mourning. Life and death are about to meet one another.
A well-respected widow in the town has a crowd following her as they weep and mourn the loss of her only son. The pain contained within her face as tears fall to the ground with her weeping over what her son might have become and all the memories she was looking forward to—all of this was gone as she realizes that dreams she had for him had come to an end. But not only so, this widow is now at risk with no son, which meant no land inheritance in Israel. Even though there are some gleaning laws for provisions, it would still be hard for her to fend for herself. God cares about the poor, the vulnerable, the widows and the orphans in their distress as James tells us, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
A turning point occurs the moment these two crowds meet, as Jesus walks up to this widow and says, “Don’t cry” (Luke 7:13). Jesus then turns to the widow’s dead son and says, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” (Luke 7:14). And much to everybody’s surprise, this young man gets up and starts to speak. All of a sudden tears of sorrow and grief turn into tears of amazement and joy. The son who was dead is brought back to life. All the people who witnessed this happening were,
“filled with awe and praised God. ‘A great prophet has appeared among us,’ they said. ‘God has come to help His people’” (Luke 7:16).
Christ is the only one who can heal this world’s brokenness and transform us from death to life. The only hope for the world and its brokenness is not social service agencies, not education, not higher learning because there is nothing that can change us like Christ. Jesus came to do for us what we were powerless to do ourselves—to save and rescue us from our sin. Have we experienced the healing power of Jesus in our life?
Prayer: Lord God, thank You for being the One who can transform me from death to life. Give me the courage to share with others this life I found in You. Praise You!
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